Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad

Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (JTJ) was a militant jihadist group which existed in Iraq from 1999 to 17 October 2004. It was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi at an al-Qaeda training camp in Herat, Afghanistan, and it held far more radical views than al-Qaeda, advocating the execution of all Shi'ites, an extreme policy of takfir, and the toppling of Jordan's "un-Islamic" monarchy. From May to late November 2002, Zarqawi was based out of Baghdad, where he was treated for an injured leg, and he fled to Iran before Saddam Hussein's security forces could locate him. JTJ was responsible for the assassination of American diplomat Lawrence Foley in October 2002, and it became a decentralized militant network fighting against the US-led coalition forces and their Iraqi allies during the Iraq War. JTJ included a growing number of foreign fighters as well as considerable Iraqi membership, including the remnants of Ansar al-Islam. The JTJ utilized suicide bombings, car bombs, kidnappings, IEDs, RPG and mortar attacks, and the beheading of Iraqi and foreign hostages. On 17 October 2004, Zarqawi pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, and JTJ became al-Qaeda in Iraq.